


You’ll Never See the Bullet That Takes You Down

by Lady_of_Winterhell



Category: Hannibal Lecter Series - All Media Types, Hannibal Lecter Tetralogy - Thomas Harris
Genre: F/M, Missing Scene, inner monologue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-02
Updated: 2018-10-02
Packaged: 2019-07-24 09:04:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,199
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16171946
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_of_Winterhell/pseuds/Lady_of_Winterhell
Summary: “The world will not be this way within the reach of my arm.”—Clarice Starling, Hannibal, Chapter 80Missing scene from Hannibal chapters 80-81 where Clarice ultimately decides to save Lecter from the Verger Estate, sealing both of their fates.





	You’ll Never See the Bullet That Takes You Down

What does one do when she reaches the crossroads? Clarice Starling had never had much trouble knowing right from wrong. She knew certain truths to be evident: both good and evil exist in this world, and it is the duty of the good to stamp out the evil. Ultimately, her quest for good was why she chose to become an FBI Agent. However, the cold, lonely, hard truth she now faced showed her that knowing right from wrong would be her undoing. 

After speaking with Clint Pearsall, Clarice knew there would be no justice for Hannibal Lecter. Like the bait used to lure deer into the line of fire of hunter’s rifle, the FBI had dangled Clarice in front of Hannibal Lecter. Deep down, she knew. Her career was in ruins; she was meant to be the sacrificial lamb. No one fully expected her to bring Dr. Lecter to justice. They expected to become rich, famous men in capturing and killing him, while she met an untimely end—the demise of her career, her death, or both.

By the time, Clarice got into her Mustang and headed toward the Verger Estate, she knew that she had as good as resigned from the FBI—or worst. None of this had ever been in good, dutiful Agent Starling’s plan. Clarice was a great agent, and she always performed well. Unfortunately, most of her co-workers and superiors never quite got beyond the fact of her gender. She had no interest in anything other than her job, and though she was often smarter and faster than her peers, her desire for advancement was not met with quite the same praise. Of course, chauvinists, like Paul Krendler, took her desire for advancement as an open invitation for their unwanted advances. Yet, they seemed incredibly taken aback and offended when she did not reciprocate. Clarice had never been interested in these games, or any political games for that matter. Perhaps that’s what drew the target on her back that would now sully and destroy her life’s achievement.

In any case, Clarice knew right from wrong. She could have left Hannibal Lecter to the fate Mason Verger had planned—and she would have been justified in doing so as any number of people would have told her. After all, Dr. Lecter was a heinous criminal and never to be trusted. A monster, not a man. Though she could never forget who he was and what he had done, she could never quite adapt this view of Dr. Lecter. 

Six years ago at their last visit, when he made a point to brush his fingers against hers ever so slightly, breaking all of the rules, she saw it. She sensed it. She felt it. Dr. Lecter was a man like any other. Sure, he was quite capable of horrific things, but he was a human being. She knew he didn’t deserve anything Verger had planned for him because justice, not the greed of so-called good men, must prevail.

Clarice had never dreamed that for good to prevail, she must sacrifice her own crusade for justice. The worst part is: she had been by the book and honest from the start in all things Hannibal Lecter. However, because she didn’t play the games of these men, the ones not only sworn to uphold the law but sworn to have her back, she was out in the cold. These men in their suits and quests for greatness had hurt her more than even the loss of her father. They took her dreams, her power, and sense of self and sought to extinguish it when she would not fall in line. Saving Hannibal Lecter was really her only saving grace. Even if she lost everything after this, saving Dr. Lecter forum Verger would be worth it. She could do everything possible to prevent the miscarriage of justice, and she would.

Clarice wanted to uphold the law, but more importantly, she didn’t approve of any plan to harm Dr. Lecter. Sure, he was dangerous and needed confined. However, she respected him. Through his taunts and aggrandizement, Clarice understood the meaning behind Dr. Lecter’s message to her. He was the one who had never abandoned her. Fucked with her mind? Sure. But Hannibal Lecter never abandoned Clarice, for whatever that was worth. Albeit a game of predator and prey, he would never let her forget and never let her feel alone. As she snuck onto the Verger estate, these notions of Dr. Lecter did not escape her as she continued on her quest to do the right thing.

When Clarice reached the barn where Verger held Hannibal Lecter as a play thing to be fed to his hogs in piecemeal fashion, Clarice was disgusted in a way she hadn’t been since she saw Jame Gumb’s flesh suit. Mason Verger might have been one of Dr. Lecter’s victims, but he was also a sociopath stuck in his own vengeance. And to think the likes of Paul Krendler was on board with this depravity! It was not what Clarice had signed on for. She could not entertain such cruelty and degradation of humanity, not within the reach of her arm.

“Good evening, Clarice,” Dr. Lecter had greeted her as though they were long separated acquaintances. He still had an air about him that suggested that even in her rescue of him, he still somehow had the upper hand. Clarice had been perfectly clear with Dr. Lecter: fuck with me, and I’ll shoot you. From her first meeting with Dr. Lecter, Jack Crawford conditioned Clarice to never forget what Hannibal Lecter was, and she was not about to start forgetting now. 

Yet, she completely shocked herself when she handed him her dagger to free himself and provided instructions on how to detain his former captors, as though he were one of her team members. “No,” she thought. “I can actually trust Dr. Lecter to be exactly who he seems to be.” Even more shocking, Hannibal Lecter and Clarice Starling moved in sync and with complete fluidity, in spite of the “hard to work with” reputation she had garnered within the Bureau. For a brief moment, Clarice let a sly grin slip, shocking herself once more, as she thought “I’ve finally found the one partner I can work with: Hannibal Lecter.”

“Careful, there should be three,” she heard Hannibal say as she prepared to get them out of there, not sure what to do with the seemingly apprehended fugitive in her midst. Just days ago, she would’ve turned him over immediately, following all of the proper channels. However, she knew there would be no justice in handing him over. The only winners would be the men in power who wanted to fuck her, and then, fuck her over. It’s what 10 years in the Bureau taught her. It was that pain in her heart that didn’t let her feel the first shot of pain to her calf.

Though she only remembers the first shot, Hannibal would later tell her she had been shot twice. They say you’ll never see the bullet that takes you down. Well, they were right. Clarice never even saw Hannibal Lecter coming.


End file.
